Sam Allardyce accepts Chris Samba’s red card

The gigantic defender brought down Danny Welbeck just outside the penalty area in first-half stoppage time but Rovers more than deserved their point after doing their fair share of attacking after the interval.

“Obviously we can’t criticise the referee for that,” said Allardyce.“He’s through on goal, we can just be very thankful the assistant referee saw it was outside the box.

“We deserved the point we got. It’s a great point in the end.

“We’ve got one of the best disciplinary records in the Premier League at the moment. That would have changed today because we got Chris Samba sent off but it was not through foul play or a dangerous tackle.

“We’re getting a perception we’re a long-ball team and we’re dirty but that’s not true.”